Tag Archives: legalization

Seed to Sale Show is the only national show focused solely on innovative best practices, science, and cutting-edge technology surrounding the whole life cycle of the cannabis plant grown, processed, and sold in a regulated market.

This February 12–13, more than 3,000 of the nation’s leading professionals will convene in Boston, MA, at the forefront of the cannabis industry’s technological advancement and modernization, to learn about the latest innovations behind the growing, extracting, infusing, marketing, and retailing of cannabis in three highly-focused educational tracks

Fast-forward almost a year and EVIO Labs Florida is continuing their expansion in the state, now with locations in Broward County and Gainesville. “We are always looking at opportunities to better serve our clients and the patients of Florida,” says Martinez. “Opening Gainesville within a year of Davie was a goal we set for our team. We knew there was a need and opening Gainesville helped support the continued growth of FL medical marijuana program.” He says that between the two locations, they can now process upwards of 1,400 samples a day.

According to Martinez, much of that expanded throughput is thanks to their partnership with Shimadzu. “Our relationship with Shimadzu is very unique,” says Martinez. “Shimadzu instrumentation allows us to test in parts per billion for accuracy and sensitivity levels that empower us to see deep into the chemical makeup of these medicines. Operating in this space where speed and turnaround times are key, these instruments provide us with a platform to meet 24/48-hour deadlines.” They can now screen for contaminants such as pesticides, heavy metals, residual solvents, mycotoxins, aflatoxins and pathogens using instruments such as HPLC, GC-MS/MS, LC-MS/MS and ICP-MS, all provided by Shimadzu.

While Florida doesn’t currently have a final rule on testing thresholds, there are proposed regulations that would require independent lab testing for medical cannabis products. “Our clients are self-regulating at this time and in favor of the current proposed regulation,” says Martinez. “The proposed regulations will give Florida the most comprehensive and stringent testing regulation in the U.S. and arguably the world.”

For Martinez and the rest of the EVIO Labs Florida team, this is about protecting public health. “Our lab’s main focus is always first and foremost patient safety,” says Martinez. “As the market continues to grow, we continue to innovate through business intelligence software and other technologies to streamline the testing process for our customer’s.”

Welcome to the evolving world of cannabis legislation and taxation in California. With the recent 2018 midterm election, a green wave of new laws and regulations has washed ashore, and Taxnexus, a cannabis tax compliance service provider for cannabis businesses, has analyzed the results, looking for insights to guide cannabis business owners in 2019.

In summary, the trend of local counties and cities imposing new cannabis taxes on dispensaries, distributors and cultivators continues, but with some important lessons being learned.

A Brief History of California Cannabis Tax Regulations.

The legalization of cannabis in California brought with it cannabis excise tax and cultivation taxes with the hope of bringing in significant amounts of income in cannabis taxes. The state had projected $185M in cannabis tax revenue for the first six months of 2018. Although California has since collected tens of millions of dollars fewer than anticipated, it did bring in over $135M in the first and second quarters from a brand new industry.

Local governments are able to collect these taxes directly from cannabis businesses. With the green light from the state and the need for a new source of revenue, many local governments followed suit and passed laws to impose taxes on cannabis businesses operating in their jurisdictions. The need for additional revenue is even greater for localities that allow cannabis business operations given that the state takes virtually all of the state-imposed cannabis taxes while the local government entities are burdened by the related costs of regulations and enforcement at the local level.

Cannabis business taxes have an extra allure for local jurisdictions. Unlike local sales and use taxes, the state does not require local cannabis business taxes to go through the state before a portion of it gets funneled back to the localities. Local governments are able to collect these taxes directly from cannabis businesses.

Since January 1, 2018, many local jurisdictions have come onboard and placed ballot measures for their voters to decide whether to tax cannabis businesses. According to research conducted by Taxnexus, by the end of the second quarter this year, there were over 500 different local cannabis tax rates in California.The new cannabis tax measures are also continuing the trend of widely ranging local cannabis tax laws.

Midterm Results Continue Overwhelming Support for Cannabis Industry

With about 50 cannabis tax measures placed on the November 6 local ballots, most of which passed with overwhelming support from voters, the number and variation of local cannabis business taxes continue to grow. This demonstrates the continuing trend of local governments welcoming cannabis businesses, the evolving voter attitude toward recreational cannabis, and perhaps most importantly, the localities’ desire to take their cut of the new industry’s tax revenue.

The new cannabis tax measures are also continuing the trend of widely ranging local cannabis tax laws. Given that the Medicinal and Adult-Use Cannabis Regulation and Safety Act granted local jurisdictions control over deciding their own cannabis business regulations, there is no statewide uniformity. Here are a few examples of the cannabis business tax measures that were on local ballots on November 6:

San Francisco

While some local jurisdictions were quick to impose cannabis taxes, others have delayed in taxing their local cannabis businesses. San Francisco’s Proposition D, which received a 66% voter approval, won’t go into effect until January 1, 2021. It imposes taxes on cannabis businesses that do business in the city, whether or not they are physically located there. The new cannabis business taxes are as follows:

For cannabis retail businesses, 2.5% of gross receipts up to $1M and 5% of gross receipts over $1M.

For cannabis non-retail businesses, 1% tax of gross receipts up to $1M and 1.5% of gross receipts over $1M.

These taxes do not apply to the first $500,000 of recreational cannabis gross receipts nor revenues from medical cannabis retail sales. The measure allows the Board of Supervisors to adjust the tax rates up to 7%. The cannabis businesses taxes are expected to generate $5M to $12M in cannabis tax revenue, and will go into the City’s general fund.The new tax measures underscore the lack of uniformity in local cannabis business taxes throughout the state.

Emeryville

Emeryville passed a new cannabis business tax measure to increase its current nominal rate. Measure S imposes a cannabis business tax of up to 6% of gross receipts. This is estimated to generate $2M in tax revenue to be used for unrestricted governmental purposes.

Oakland

Oakland is among the few local jurisdictions that placed a measure on its November 6 ballot to lower its existing cannabis business tax rates. Previously, Oakland imposed a 5% tax on medical cannabis and a 10% tax on recreational cannabis, for all cannabis activities throughout the supply chain. These are among some of the highest cannabis tax rates in the state and are squeezing out small operators. Although Oakland has long been seen as the leader in California’s cannabis industry, the high taxes are making it difficult for its cannabis businesses to compete with nearby cities that charge lower taxes. While the city acknowledged the hardship its high taxes imposed, it maintained that it could not lower the rates on its own and required the voter approval. On November 6th, Oakland voters passed Measure V by 78%, which gives the City Council the authority to lower the city’s cannabis tax rates through an ordinance. To give additional relief to the cannabis businesses in the city, this measure also allows them to deduct the cost of raw materials from their gross receipts- something they cannot do on their federal tax returns. Furthermore, local cannabis business taxes can now be paid on a quarterly basis instead of one annual payment at the beginning of each year, which was severely burdensome for most businesses.

Lake County

Voters in Lake County approved Measure K by a majority vote to tax cannabis businesses in the unincorporated county effecting January 1, 2021. The county was previously only taxing cultivators at $1 to $3 per square footage depending on the method of cultivation. These rates will be reduced to $1 per square footage for cultivators and nurseries, and other cannabis businesses will be taxes between 2.5% and 4% of their gross receipts.

Mountain View

While there is a maximum of four cannabis businesses permitted to operate in Mountain View, over 80% of voters approved Measure Q to tax them. The measure imposes up to 9% of gross receipts to fund general city purposes, with an estimated annual revenue of $1M.Some have even set the effective dates of their cannabis tax laws several years out to allow their local cannabis businesses an opportunity to establish roots and drive out the black market.

Lompoc

Some jurisdictions have passed more creative cannabis business tax regimens than one rate applicable to the entire supply chain. Voters in Lompoc in Santa Barbara County approved Measure D2018 to authorize the city to impose following cannabis business taxes:

Up to $0.06 per $1 (6%) of recreational retail sales proceeds;

Up to $0.01 per $1 (1%) of cultivation and nursery proceeds;

An annual flat fee tax of $15,000 if net income is less than $2M of manufacturing and distribution proceeds;

An annual flat fee tax of $30,000 if net income is $2 Million or more of manufacturing and distribution proceeds;

A total aggregate tax of $0.06 per $1.00 (6%) of microbusinesses proceeds, not including medical cannabis transaction proceeds; and

No tax on testing.

Riverbank

There are signs that other localities that waited to jump onboard have learned from these high-taxing jurisdictions and opted for lower rates. There are even those localities that although they do not statutorily permit cannabis businesses to operate in their jurisdictions, they still want a piece of the action when it comes to cannabis taxes. The city of Riverbank in Stanislaus County currently does not allow cannabis businesses to operate without first obtaining a permit from City Hall and entering into a development agreement with the city that negotiates how much of their revenue the city would take. However, the voters just passed Measure B, which authorizes Riverbank’s City Council to impose a business license tax of up to 10% of gross receipts on cannabis businesses in the event the city allows cannabis businesses to operate within its city limits in the future. This tax has incentives other than the apparent potential of tax revenue. This guarantees the city a cut of the earnings of any illegal cannabis businesses, and serves as a protection in the event the permit and development agreement scheme the city has enacted is later found to be invalid.

The Chaos Continues

The new tax measures underscore the lack of uniformity in local cannabis business taxes throughout the state. Compliance is especially burdensome for delivery companies and multi-location and multi-license cannabis businesses. Cannabis businesses are required to keep up with new and evolving cannabis tax regimens, which, judging by the shortfall in cannabis tax revenues compared to their projections so far, is a difficult feat for these highly-regulated businesses.Of course, there are still some local governments that appear to have missed all the signs and have passed new high taxes.

The overall trend in 2018, persisting through the midterm elections, is that more local jurisdictions are joining the cannabis tax bandwagon, and while the tax rates and structures are still all over the map, there appears to be some movement toward honing the cannabis business rates toward that “sweet spot.”

Cities like Oakland and Berkeley that immediately began to tax cannabis businesses at high rates have lowered or taken steps to lower their tax rates to keep their competitive edge and retain cannabis businesses within their jurisdictions. There are signs that other localities that waited to jump onboard have learned from these high-taxing jurisdictions and opted for lower rates. Some have even set the effective dates of their cannabis tax laws several years out to allow their local cannabis businesses an opportunity to establish roots and drive out the black market.

Of course, there are still some local governments that appear to have missed all the signs and have passed new high taxes. In due time, they, too, will give in to the market pressures and make necessary adjustments if they want to continue to benefit from the legal cannabis industry in their jurisdictions.

Taxnexus is an automated transaction-to-treasury cannabis tax compliance solution for the entire cannabis supply chain that provides point-of-sale state and local cannabis tax calculation, sales and use tax calculation, tax data management as the authority of record, and timely filing of returns with all applicable taxing authorities.

For the second time in six months, the Washington State Liquor and Cannabis Board (WSLCB) took swift and severe action on a cannabis business licensee operating in the black market. The regulatory agency issued an emergency license suspension for Port Angeles’ North Coast Concentrates, which are effective for 180 days, during which time regulators plan on revoking the license altogether.

According to a release emailed last week, the violation was uncovered during a routine traffic stop. “On September 20, 2018 an employee of North Coast Concentrates was pulled over by Lower Elwha Police, during the course of the traffic stop officers found 112 grams of traceable marijuana concentrates, three large jars and a large tote bin of untraced dried marijuana flower,” reads the release. “The products were not manifested in the state traceability system. Subsequent investigation by WSLCB officers revealed that the untraced product had been removed from the licensees grow operation and that the traced concentrates were returned from a marijuana retailer in Tacoma several weeks earlier.”

The release goes on to add that when regulators investigated the matter, they found text messages indicating the license holder’s complicity in the act. When the WSLCB suspended the license, officers seized “556 pounds of marijuana flower product, 24 pounds of marijuana oil and 204 plants from both locations.” Regulators say, “the severity of these violations and the risk of diversion” is the reason for the emergency suspension and product seizures.

According to the end of the release, The WSLCB issued one emergency suspension in 2017, and six in 2018. One of those was roughly six months ago in July when regulators issued an emergency suspension for a Tacoma-based cannabis business for the same reason as the most recent one- diversion.

The WSLCB release email from July

The enforcement branch of the WSLCB acted on a complaint and inspected Refined Cannabinoids where they found “numerous and substantial violations including full rooms of untagged plants, clones and finished product,” reads a release emailed back in July. “During the course of the inspection officers discovered and seized 2,569 marijuana plants, 1,216 marijuana plant clones, 375.8 lbs. of frozen marijuana flower stored in 11 freezer chests, 3,423 0.5 gram marijuana cigarettes, and 97.5 lbs. of bulk marijuana flower without the requisite traceability identifiers.”

That July release also states that enforcement officers found evidence of diversion to the black market, in addition to the company not tracking their product. “Traceability is a core component of Washington’s system and essential for licensee compliance,” says Justin Nordhorn, WSLCB chief of enforcement. “If our licensees fail to track their product they put their license in jeopardy.”

It has been a busy couple of weeks for Aurora executives, no matter what else is going on. And all signs indicate that Aurora is not only keeping its pressure on major competitors Tilray and Canopy in particular, but playing a highly sophisticated political and global game right now.

Where the company in other words is not “winning,” Aurora is clearly establishing an effective global footprint that is ensuring that it is at least keeping pace with the speed of market development and even breaking new ground more than once recently.

The Aurora Tour Of The Global Stage In Late October

Forget what is going on in Canada for a moment, if that is possible. Global investors, certainly, in the aftermath of the post legalization glow, certainly seem to be. So are the big LPs like Aurora. They are looking elsewhere, to medical markets and to Europe, for more clarity on where the market will go.

Aurora certainly has been, even if unwittingly, caught in the middle of that conversation, in part because of where and how the company has been positioning itself lately.

Last time around, the company announced it was in the top ten finalists. This time, it is also expected to do well.That said, what Aurora is doing, like everyone else in this space right now, is playing a global game of hopscotch in terms of both raising equity and then where that capital gets spent. Aurora’s recent victories, certainly this year, indicate that it will continue to be a formidable presence in the room.

For now, however, it is clear that retail investors are suddenly cautious and institutional investors are clearly still very leery. So where does that leave Aurora?

Road Trip To Germany

CEO Cam Battley at a conference in Frankfurt

Consider these interesting series of events. Canadian recreational reform “goes live” on October 17. Instead of sticking around Canada, however, CEO Cam Battley spoke at a recent investor road show for the Canadian public cannabis companies over the weekend of October 21-22 in Frankfurt, Germany. Three well placed, but anonymous industry sources confirmed to Cannabis Industry Journal that a meeting between all the major cannabis companies in Frankfurt over the weekend (including not only Aurora, but Wayland Corporation, Canopy, Aphria, Green Organic Dutchman and Hexo) was either planned or attempted with federal Minister of Health, Jens Spahn sometime during this period of time.

Even more interestingly, this conference had clearly been planned to coincide with the original due date of the new German cultivation bid, in which Aurora is also well positioned. Last time around, the company announced it was in the top ten finalists. This time, it is also expected to do well.

Whenever the bid finally is decided, that is.

As of October 23, the day of the IPO in New York and the day after the conference in Frankfurt concluded, news circulated that the bid had been delayed a second time, with rumours of further lawsuits swirling.

IPO In New York

That day, Tuesday October 23, Aurora announced its IPO on the NYSE, not in Frankfurt after announcing this possibility the month before. This is significant, namely because all of the cannabis companies listed here are essentially in what is known, colloquially, auf Deutsch, as being “in the dog house.” Namely, financial regulators are looking closely at listed companies’ profiles on the exchange. If a listed company is too associated with the recreational industry, trades will be barred from clearing by Clearstream, the daughter company of the Deutsche Börse and located in Luxembourg. Earlier in the summer, all of the major LPs were briefly on the restricted list.

The next day after Canadian recreational reform became reality in fact, on October 18, the Deutsche Börse made the latest in a series of comments regarding its intentions about their future decisions on the clearing of cannabis stocks. Namely, that at their discretion, they can prevent the clearing of stock purchases of a cannabis company at any time. In other words, essentially delisting the stock.

Aurora, with its ties to mainstream, “adult use” in North America, is absolutely affected by the same, certainly in the short term. Including of course, all those rumours about Coke’s interest in the company (still unconfirmed by both Aurora and Coke).

Looking Toward Poland

Yet here is where Aurora stays interesting. Just two days after its debut on the NYSE, the company announced that Aurora would be the first external company to be allowed to import medical cannabis to Poland (to a Warsaw hospital and pain clinic). The same day, incidentally, as the Polish government announced that medical cannabis could indeed begin to be imported.

This came after a stunning move earlier in the year when the company bagged the first medical cultivation license in Italy.

Clearly, Aurora is keeping good, if not powerful, company. And that will position it well in the long run. Even if, for now, its IPO on the NYSE got off to a less than powerful start.

Why Does Aurora Stand Out?

Like all the major cannabis companies on the global stage right now, Aurora understands what it takes to get into the room (wherever and whatever that room might be) in politically and regulatorily astute ways, much like Tilray. Both companies are also very similar in how they are continuing to execute market entry and public market strategy. Tilray, it should be remembered, went public over the summer, in North America too, right around the announcement of the final recreational date in Canada.

And while Aurora is clearly playing a still retail-oriented stock market strategy, it has proved over the last 18 months that it is shaping up to be a savvy, political player on the cusp of legislative change in multiple European states so far. They are courting the much bigger game now of institutional investment globally.

In Part 6, the conclusion of this series, we take a look at nine key takeaways from the series:We hope you enjoyed this series and found the information provided to be useful. If you’d like to learn more about intellectual property law in Canada as it relates to the cannabis industry, feel free to reach out to Richard Naiberg at rnaiberg@goodmans.ca

Summary of Practical Considerations For Cannabis Producers

Cannabis producers should establish procedures by which the technological innovations achieved by their employees are kept confidential and are quickly reported to management for consideration as to whether the innovation should be protected as a trade secret, by patent, by plant breeder’s right or not protected at all.

If a trade secret protection is desired, the producer must invoke systems that limit knowledge of the secrets to those in the company with a need to know it, and make sure that departing employees understand their obligations of confidentiality and do not take any documentation of the secrets with them when they go.

The nature of the innovation under consideration will drive the choice between a patent and a plant breeder’s right. Plant breeder’s rights only protect whole plants. Patents protect other innovations, subject to the limitations described above. Patents may be drafted to protect whole plants, albeit indirectly: a patent on genetic sequences or engineered cell can be infringed by a whole plant that incorporates those sequences or cells.

The decision as to whether to file an application for a patent or a plant breeder’s right, and in what jurisdiction(s), should be made with careful consideration of whether the producer will employ the invention/variety in its business (and in what countries), as well as the potential value of the invention/variety to other producers who may eventually become licensees of the resulting patent(s) or plant breeder’s right.

Cannabis producers must remain up-to-date on patent and plant breeder’s rights applications that are filed in the jurisdictions in which they operate so as to be in a position to identify patents and plant breeder’s rights that will potentially affect their freedom to operate. Such due diligence will also allow the producer to predict the technological and business focuses of their competitors.

Cannabis producers must select a trademark that is immediately distinctive or can quickly become distinctive of its goods and services. The trademarks ought to be fully available, in the sense that they are not in use by any competing business in any of the jurisdictions in which the producer intends to do business. Ideally, the trademark ought to be available as a domain name to ensure that there is no confusion on the Internet.

Once the trademark is selected, the cannabis producer should make consistent and extensive use of that trademark. The more consistent and ubiquitous the use, the stronger the producer’s brand and trademark will be.

The owner of the trademark must routinely conduct searches to ensure that no third party is using a trademark that is similar that of the owner. If such unauthorized use is discovered, the owner must act quickly to restrain that use or potentially license the use.

Cannabis producers ought to contract to ensure that they are the first owners or assignees of any copyright subsisting in the artwork, literature and websites the company creates or hires other to create. Producers ought also to obtain waivers of the moral rights of any authors of this work.

We hope you enjoyed this series and found the information provided to be useful. If you’d like to learn more about intellectual property law in Canada as it relates to the cannabis industry, feel free to reach out to Richard Naiberg at rnaiberg@goodmans.ca

On Election Night in America, pundits on the news media were reporting on the blue wave of Democrats taking back control of the House of Representatives, a less-discussed green wave made its way through the ballots in a number of states. While not as big of a tidal force as we saw back in 2016, this election still brought a handful of states on the cannabis legalization train.

Measure 3 in North Dakota failed to get enough votes, but many seem to think this was somewhat expected, as the state is still working on implementing their medical framework years later and that this new measure was less than perfect.

However, here comes the good news: Missouri voters passed Amendment 2, which legalizes, regulates and taxes medical cannabis. Very interestingly, this measure includes language allowing for caregivers to grow up to six plants. Check out Tom Angell’s article on Forbes to learn more.

In Utah, Proposition 2 passed by a narrower margin than other states, but legislators in the state are already full steam ahead on legalizing medical cannabis. They planned to pass a bill with the same language in Prop 2 if it didn’t get enough votes. Regardless, Utah will begin working on implementing a regulatory framework for legal medical cannabis, per the voters’ request.

While the 2016 election saw a handful of states legalize recreational cannabis, only one state did so this time around: Michigan. Voters in Michigan passed Proposal 1, making it the ninth state in the country to legalize and regulate recreational cannabis. According to Matthew Schweich, deputy director of the Marijuana Policy Project, Michigan’s legalization is a major milestone for the country. “The passage of Proposal 1 is a major milestone for marijuana policy reform in the U.S. Michigan will be the first state in the Midwest to end marijuana prohibition and replace it with a system in which marijuana is regulated for adult use,” says Schweich. “Michigan is going to demonstrate that regulating marijuana works, and it will set a strong example for other states in the region and around the country.”

The global cannabis industry is hitting thorny regulatory challenges everywhere these days as the bar is raised for international commerce. First it was recognition that the entire production industry in Canada would basically have to retool to meet European (medical and food) standards. And that at least for now for the same reasons, American exports are basically a no go.

However, beyond this, the battle over financial reporting and other compliance of a fiscal kind has been a hot topic this year on European exchanges.

As of this summer, (and not unrelated to the other two seismic shifts) there is another giant in the room.

The German version is actually Europe’s highest privacy standard, which means for the cannabis industry, this is the one that is required for operations here across the continent if you are in this business.

What is it, and what does it mean for the industry?

GDPR – The Elevator Pitch

Here is why you cannot ignore it. The regulation affects bankers as much as growers, distributors as much as producers and of course the entire ecosystem behind medical production and distribution across Europe and actually far beyond it. Starting of course, with patients but not limited to them. The law in essence, applies to “you” whoever you are in this space. That is why it becomes all that much more complicated in the current environment.

While this is complex and far reaching, however, there are a couple of ways to think about this regulation that can help you understand it and how to manage to it (if not innovate with it).

The first is, to American audiences at least, that GDPR is sort of like HIPAA, the federal American privacy civil rights statute that governs medical privacy law. Except, of course, this being Europe, it is far more robust and far reaching. It touches every aspect of electronic privacy including data storage, retention, processing and security that is applicable to modern life. And far, far, beyond just “patients.”

On the marketing side, GDPR is currently causing no end of headaches. Broadly, the legislation, which came into force this year, with real teeth (4% of global revenues if you get it wrong), applies to literally every aspect of the cannabis industry for two big reasons beyond that. Medical issues, which are the only game in town right now in Europe (and thus require all importers to also be in compliance) and financial regulatory requirements.

The requirements in Germany are more onerous than they are in the rest of Europe. Therefore, they also affect the cannabis industry in a big way, especially since there is at this point a great deal of European cultivation with the German (and now British) medical market in mind. Further Germany is becoming European HQ for quite a few of the Canadian LPs. That means German standards apply.

The UK, for those watching all Brexit events with interest, will also continue to be highly affected by this. Whether it stays in the EU or not, it must meet a certain “trusted nation” status to be able to transact with the continent in any kind of favoured nation status.

Bottom line? It is big and here and expensive if you screw it up. If considering doing any kind of business with European customers, start hitting the books now. Large mainstream media organizations in the United States and Canada right now are so afraid of the consequences of getting this wrong that they have blocked readership from Europe for the present. Large financial institutions also must not only be in compliance but compliance of companies also guides their investment mandates on the regulatory front.

For all of these reasons, the cannabis industry would do well to take note.

What Does This Mean for The Cannabis Industry?

The Canadian and rest of the global industry is still struggling with compliance and this will have some interesting repercussions going forward.patient data must be handled and stored differently

Immediately, this means that all websites that are targeted to German eyes (read Canadian LPs and international, even English-only press) should hire German side compliance experts for a quick GDPR audit. There are few European experts at this point, and even fewer foreign ones. It is worth a call around to find out who is doing this auf Deutschland and bite the bullet.

It also means that internally, patient data must be handled and stored differently. And furthermore, it is not just “patients” who have this right, but everyone who transacts with your electronic or other presence. That includes consumers, subscribers to email newsletters and other stakeholders in the industry.

As the cannabis industry also starts to embrace technology more fully, it will also have highly impactful influence on what actually passes for a compliant technology (particularly if it is customer facing) but not limited to the same.

On the marketing side, GDPR is currently causing no end of headaches. Starting with PR and customer outreach teams who are trying to figure out how much of their master mailing lists they can keep and which they cannot. On this front, Mail Chimp is undeniably the go-to right now and has also implanted easy to understand and use technology that is being adopted by European marketers and those targeting Europe.

Stay tuned for more coverage on GDPR as we cover how data protection and privacy regulations will impact cannabis businesses, their marketing and outreach, plus service design efforts (in particular to patients) and other areas of interest.

Bearing through four voluntarily recalls in the first two months since the transition window ended, the California cannabis industry showed its commitment to providing safe goods for its consumers. Recalls are considered the removal of products deemed unsafe at the point of retail. With unsafe product already on shelves, it is that much more important to have a thought out strategy if a recall need arises. Currently, the California Department of Public Health-Manufactured Cannabis Safety Branch is the only regulatory agency in the state of California with recall stipulations for California cannabis companies. Thus, the onus is on individual cannabis companies to initiate their own recall plans.

Why establish a recall plan if one is not compulsory? To start, a cannabis product recall is more challenging than recalls in other industries because of the classification as a Schedule 1 drug and the misunderstanding and stigma of the drug that promotes fake news. These considerations affect the way both the government officials and consumers perceive cannabis recalls – not preparing ahead of time could be devastating to your brand. Furthermore, a recall is not just a one day headache – in December 2017, the Inspector General of Department of Health and Human Services found that food companies took 57 days on average to initiate a recall after the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) first learned a product was potentially hazardous. Not only is a recall tricky to navigate and time intensive, a recall can also be costly – a joint study by the Food Marketing Institute (FMI) and the Grocery Manufacturers’ Association (GMA) in the USA found that 77% of the study respondents estimated the financial impact to be up to $30 million dollars; 23% reported even higher costs. One major factor of the financial impact to consider is that many retailers do not remove only the affected products, instead sweeping entire lines and brands. To estimate how much a food recall would cost your company, researchers Moises Resende-Filho and Brian Burr developed a model to estimate the direct costs of a food recall. To take a step back, it is true that, while recalls can be tricky to navigate, time intensive and costly, recalls are generally infrequent. At the same time, you never know where or when a recall could happen. For example, your manufacturing process might be flawless, but a supplier may suddenly issue a recall or the retail facility is compromised. Moreover, not all recalls are equal – imagine that consumers would react differently to an undeclared allergen on the label versus a life threatening pathogen in a product distributed to patients with weakened immune systems. Ergo, it is strategic for every cannabis company (grower, manufacturer, retail, etc.) to have a recall plan to be ready for any type of recall situation.

Take these 6 tips in designing a recall plan:

Product recalls due to manufacturing errors in sanitation cause mistrust among consumers.

Before a Recall

1) Be familiar with how recalls work by staying up to date with recalls

During a Recall

3) Record everything that was said and done. If there was no prewritten recall plan, during a recall is a good time as any to begin documenting all actions and communication – internal within the management team and external with business partners (suppliers, retailers) and external with the consumers.

4) Find the flaw in the product. Why is the product being recalled? This is important to know, whether it was your item or not, to better answer the next question of “What happens with the recalled product?” The most common causes for a recall in the USA are identified in the joint study mentioned above by the FMI and GMA.

After a Recall

5) Reevaluate the recall plan. Compare to a reputable third-party auditing standard (example here is Safe Quality Food Institute’s SQF Food Safety Code for Manufacturing Edition 8). Updates to the recall plan are inevitable and constant. The changes may be due to updates in company products, adjustments in the recall network or the experience gained when going through a recall. Also keep an eye out for updates to templates of recall plans. Conduct mock recalls with different recall origins.

6) Reevaluate the food safety plan. After finding the flaw in the product, identify the flaw in the process and improve. Examples to improve the food safety plan may be to: amend the supplier approval program, refine process flow, polish the sanitation program or revise the preventative maintenance program. The foundation of a recall plan is having a robust food safety plan to minimize the risk of running a recall.

Food safety incidents can be prevented. However, prevention requires planning, which requires the effort of everyone in a company to create a culture of quality and food safety. How exactly do you plan for food safety? Food safety planning implies the building of a food safety management system. Food safety management systems allow for an efficient management of hazards that may be present in the food by the development and implementation of pre-requisite programs (PRPs) and a food safety plan, while supported by management commitment. So, let’s take a closer look at each of these building blocks:Radojka Barycki will lead a plenary session titled, “Cannabis: A Compliance Revolution” at the 2018 Food Safety Consortium | Learn More

Management Commitment

The development and implementation of a food safety management system requires financial, equipment, and technically sound personnel in order to be successful and sustainable. The management team of any cannabis product manufacturer must be committed to food safety, so the needed resources to develop and implement a food safety management system are provided. Management commitment creates a culture within the operation that supports, sustains and continuously improves food safety.

Pre-Requisite Programs (PRPs)

Pre-requisite programs are procedures that establish the minimal operations conditions to produce safe and quality products. Pre-requisite programs are the foundation of food safety and must be developed and implemented prior to creating a food safety plan. They keep potential hazards from becoming serious enough to adversely impact the safety of products produced. Pre-requisite programs include but are not limited to:

Document Control

Supplier Verification Programs

Raw Material Receiving (ingredients, processing aids and packaging)

Good Manufacturing Practices (GMPs)

Preventative Maintenance (PM) Program

Calibration Program

Integrated Pest Management (IPM)

Environmental Monitoring Programs (EMPs)

Water Management Programs (WMPs)

Allergen Management Program

Standard Sanitation Operating Procedures (SSOPs)

Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs)

Storage and Transportation Procedures

Crisis Management

Traceability

Recall

Record keeping

Waste Management

Training

Food Safety Plan (FSP)As you can see, food safety planning requires the development and implementation of a lot of programs.

A food safety plan is a documented systematic approach that follows the Codex Alimentarius HACCP Principles to identify, prevent and minimize to an acceptable level or control hazards that may be present in food and that can cause an illness or injure the consumer. The first step in this systematic approach is the formation of a food safety team, which main responsibility is to identify the scope of the food safety plan and to oversee all of the activities associated with the plan (e.g. monitoring, verification, validation, etc.) After the food safety team is formed, the steps outlined below are followed in order (systematically):

Product Description

Product Intended Use

Development of the flow diagram

Verification of the flow diagram

Conduct a Hazard Analysis

Identify Critical Control Points (CCPs) or Preventive Controls

Establish Critical Limits

Monitor Critical Limits

Establish Corrective Actions

Establish Verification Procedures

Establish Record Keeping Procedures

As you can see, food safety planning requires the development and implementation of a lot of programs. Therefore, I highly recommend that you hire a food safety consultant that can guide you through this process.

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